Attorney: California ballot measure system may be weaker after Prop. 8 ruling

IRVINE -- As California's supporters of same-sex marriage celebrated today's Supreme Court ruling that overturned the state's voter-approved ban on gay unions, the president of a conservative law firm lamented what he saw as a blow to the Golden State's ballot measure process.

"The big issue, from our perspective, was the issue of the rights of the individual to petition their government through the initiative process," said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute.

The Pacific Justice Institute, which has offices in Santa Ana and Sacramento, was one of the many groups on either side of the Prop. 8 case to file an amicus, or "friend of the court" brief arguing their side of the issue. The group is also pursuing a campaign to file complaints against Department of

Justice attorneys who Dacus said acted unethically by switching sides in a related case on the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that - before another ruling handed down today - prevented the federal government from recognizing same sex marriages.

Although the high court, in a 5-4 opinion authored by famed "swing justice" Anthony Kennedy struck down DOMA on the grounds the law violated same-sex couples equal protection of the law, the Supreme Court did not rule whether California voters had the right to ban same-sex marriage when they did so by passing Proposition 8 in November 2008.

Instead, by a different 5-4 majority, justices rules that the group of petitioners led by former state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth lacked legal standing to bring the case before the Court. The petitioners defended Proposition 8 after California officials, usually tasked with defended ballot initiatives in court, declined to do so.

In Dacus' view, today's ruling means Sacramento officials may now have the power to nullify any voter-approved ballot measures they disagree with. This, he said, would diminish the rights of all Californians, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or independents.

"All someone will have to do to challenge a proposition they don't like, passed by the majority of the people, is to find one judge, one federal judge to declare it unconstitutional, and then get the wink from the attorney general and governor of the state," Dacus said.